Aegis Incursion

by S. S. Segran

  Yes, Elder Nageau.

  Nageau ran his fingers absently through the grooves in the tree’s bark. Go, Jag. Continue with what you are doing. I believe you have found the means to determine the center from which these entities arise.

  Alright. Take care, Elder Nageau.

  You too, youngling.

  Jag severed the connection between them.

  Nageau pushed himself away from the tree and drew back his shoulders. He took one last look at the waterfall before whirling around and striding back into the forest, vanishing into its green embrace.

  45

  Aari, Tegan and Marshall hurried toward the single-story rectangular building, eager to see what Dr. Josh Ferguson and the new day would bring them. It was a rare overcast day in California that loomed over them.

  Aari’s phone rang just as they reached the door of the laboratory. The other two continued into the building but Aari stayed outside when he saw that it was Kody who was trying to reach him.

  “Be right in,” he told Tegan and Marshall as he answered the call. “Hey.”

  “Hey, dude. How’s it going?”

  “It’s fine. We met Marshall’s contact yesterday and we’re about to step into his lab right now. Everything alright there?”

  “Yeah. We’re searching for more information, trying to figure out where the nanomites are coming from and how far they’ve spread. We’re hoping to find a pattern or some other clue.”

  “We have vital info that the authorities don’t, Kode-man. These things, they come out from a central point somewhere, arrive at the target zone, destroy the crops, then either return to where they came from or go to their next target. If you guys can figure out the pattern for a given area, the focal point will be the epicenter. That would be where these things are originating from.”

  “We’ll gather more data and let you know if we find anything. It’s hunting season, buddy.”

  “Okay. And I’ll fill you in later on what we learn from here.”

  As Aari was about to hang up, Kody said, “Uh, Aari?”

  “Hm?”

  “Things are actually getting bad pretty quickly over here. Jag and Mariah got caught up in a riot that broke out at the local Walmart yesterday.”

  “What?”

  “They were pretty shaken up,” Kody said quickly. “But they’re doing better today.”

  Aari leaned heavily against the door to the building. “Oh, man . . . ”

  “I really hope we find a solution soon.”

  “You and me both.”

  “There’s one more thing. My dad called last night on behalf of all our parents. They think we’re all in Kansas right now with Jag’s granddad but they’re getting worried about us, what with the riots and all. My dad said they’re asking if we could cut our trip short and head back home.”

  “And what did you say?”

  “Being the man with the golden tongue—hey!”

  Jag’s voice came on suddenly. “Golden tongue, my foot! He was sweating when he was speaking to his dad.”

  Aari laughed as Kody returned on the other end after presumably taking the phone back from Jag. “As I was saying, being the man with the golden tongue, I told him that we were already halfway into our trip and would like to complete our adventure before returning.”

  “Did he agree?”

  “I guess. It was a reluctant agreement. But yeah, that’s all the news I’ve got.”

  “Alright. Call me if anything else crops up.”

  “Yep. Bye, dude.”

  As Aari ended the call, Tegan emerged, with a strange look on her face. She held the door open. “Come on, Aari. We’ve been waiting for you.”

  “Sorry. It was Kody.” Aari followed her inside. “You, uh, okay?”

  “Yeah, I just thought I heard . . . Never mind. They’re waiting for us.”

  They entered a waiting area with a few chairs and found Marshall already seated. Aari filled his companions in on his call with Kody. As he made a move to sit down, Josh emerged in his lab coat and glasses to greet them in his characteristically youthful and energetic way. “Good morning!”

  Marshall rose to meet him warmly. “Morning.”

  As Aari greeted Josh, he took stock of the man’s bloodshot eyes and noted a layer of disquiet behind his genuine smile.

  This can’t be good, Aari thought as Josh led them through a long corridor with spotless linoleum flooring. There were doors on either side of the passageway, each with a window that allowed Aari and the others to look in. In each chamber were people and a variety of equipment. Some workers operated in dim amber light and were covered in cleanroom suits that left only their eyes exposed, while others worked in brightly-lit rooms while wearing civilian clothes or lab coats like Josh’s.

  Josh led them to a medium-sized meeting room with a round table at its center. An open laptop rested on the table. As Aari took a seat, the bright ceiling lights reminded him of a doctor’s office but the notion instantly disappeared when he saw an image on a flat screen mounted on one wall.

  “What is that?” Marshall asked as he and Tegan sat down on either side of Aari.

  “That, Marshall,” Josh said, “would be one of the three specimens you brought to me yesterday.”

  Aari shuddered. “That’s a disturbing-looking thing.”

  Josh dimmed the overhead lights so the image could be seen better. “You’re not wrong.”

  The main body of the specimen was dark gray with a black hexagonal core. Attached to it was a long, ribbed appendage, at the end of which were four blades arranged like pincers. To Aari, it looked like either a tail or an extremely long neck.

  Josh gestured at the image. “Let me start by saying that whatever this thing is that you found, I’ve never, in all my years of working with MEMS and nanotech, seen anything like it.”

  “What are MEMS?” Tegan asked.

  “Micro-electro-mechanical systems,” Aari replied without missing a beat.

  Josh smiled his approval and said, “That’s right. They’re essentially really, really tiny machines but a level removed from nano. Nano is a way smaller scale.

  “I’ve been here all night, studying this thing and subjecting the specimens to a range of tests. Here’s what we know. We’ll begin with the structure of the nanomite. It’s completely unique. It’s made of a material that I have never seen before, which in itself is amazing. It’s a special semi-conductor, like silicon but it runs much cooler. It’s special because it’s capable of receiving optical signals. And here’s the clincher: It’s able to transform itself mechanically, moving the bonds that hold it together in order to rearrange and create new bonds with other nanomites.”

  Josh looked at them excitedly but only saw blank stares, though Aari was feverishly trying to piece together what he’d just heard.

  Marshall rested his cheek against his fist. “Wanna say that again in English?”

  “Basically, what we have here is a nanomite that receives instructions—or programming—through optical radiation. In other words, digitally encoded light bursts. And because it’s cooler than silicon, it leaves practically no heat signature.”

  “Which means it’s not observable on infrared or thermal imaging systems?” Marshall asked.

  “Yes, unless you had an extremely sensitive system and knew exactly when and where to point the sensors.”

  Aari, Tegan and Marshall looked at each other.

  “One other advantage of its ability to rearrange its bonds,” Josh said, motioning in awe at the image on the screen, “is that it can deflect light or let it pass and make itself virtually invisible to the naked eye.”

  Aari could see the man was dying to ask them how they had found and captured the specimens in the first place. Neither Aari nor the others were in a position to offer an answer to Josh’s unasked question and he felt apologetic about that.

  “What you’re telling us is, we’re dealing with something that is pretty much undetectable by any kind of sensor,” Tegan
said.

  Josh nodded. “I’m afraid so. And the news gets worse. I’ve tested one of the nanomites under extreme conditions of heat, pressure and shock. This thing came out unscathed.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that it’s pretty much indestructible.”

  “How can we stop it, then?” Aari asked. “How do you stop something that can’t be detected or destroyed?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just . . . too perfectly designed.”

  Marshall tilted his chair on its two back legs as he pondered. “What about EMP?”

  Josh took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “As I said, it functions on a basis of optical radiation and as such is impervious to bursts of electromagnetic pulse.”

  “If it’s optical-based, couldn’t we use light against them?” Aari pressed. “Like a laser beam?”

  “Possibly. It depends on the type of laser that is employed. But more importantly, you’d have to find them first. They probably come out at night and leave before dawn because that makes the most efficient use of their stealth capabilities. My assumption is that going stealth during the day would drain a considerable amount of their energy.”

  Tegan tapped the table with a finger. “Where do they get their energy from?”

  “They’re designed with extreme efficiency in mind,” Josh said, “which explains the formation they assume to get to and from their destination.”

  “You’re talking about the bird-shaped swarm,” Aari said.

  “Yes. It’s a highly efficient mode of transporting the nanomites.”

  “I get it,” Tegan said. “It’s like geese flying in formation. It allows them to fly seventy percent farther and longer without tiring.”

  “Bingo. And another way that they’re efficient is right here.” Josh walked up to the screen and pointed at the nanomite. “The claws you see here double as a propulsion system when in flight.”

  “That still doesn’t answer where they get their energy from,” Marshall said.

  “Of course, sorry. Our little friends here get their energy from background radiation, like dim light and radio waves which, by the way, completely permeate our environment.” He rested his hands on the table and leaned in. “There’s something else . . . I believe these things operate at two levels of protocols. One is for them to carry out their primary function from the instructions they receive, probably on a daily basis to keep their targets current. But it’s the second protocol that troubles me. They seem to have a set of self-defense instructions built in. When I did the extreme testing on the nanomite, its attitude changed. It turned into a berserk red micro-rocket that bounced around the test container. Looks as though if it senses a threat, it will fight back. It does so by disengaging its stealth mode to conserve energy for the fight. And that was just a single nanomite. I shudder to think how an entire swarm of these things would react if directly threatened.”

  Marshall stared up at the ceiling in frustration. “How would anyone even create these things?”

  “With cutting-edge expertise and lots of money,” Josh said. He sat on the edge of the table, shaking his head. His excitement had waned and he looked as dejected as Aari and the others felt.

  “It sounds like they’re unstoppable,” Tegan growled. “Whoever created them covered every single angle.”

  A forlorn pause hung like a cloud in the small room until Aari broke it with a thump of his palm on the table. “I refuse to believe that! There’s got to be something we’re missing.”

  The rest considered his comment in silence until Josh’s enthusiasm picked up slightly. “You know what, Aari? You’re probably right. Everything ever created by man can be undone by man. Let me take another look.”

  “You should rest first, Josh,” Marshall said. “A fresher mind might open some locked doors.”

  Josh closed his laptop and turned off the projector. “That’s true.”

  They left the room and returned to the waiting area. Josh shook their hands again and said, “I’ll take a few hours’ nap then get right back on it, don’t you worry.”

  Marshall shook his hand lastly. “We’ll be hanging around here, so if you find anything, give me a call and we’ll be right over. And thank you, Josh.”

  The scientist smiled warmly. “Don’t even mention it. There has to be an Achilles heel somewhere on these things. We’ll find it.”

  46

  Kody, Jag and Mariah sat in the living room, quickly gulping down their lunch so they could get back to work. Lady was curled up on a dog bed beside them, dozing; Kody had taken her out for a quick run that morning and she was now tuckered out. All the windows in the house were open to allow as much air circulation as possible—Concordia was just too hot for the trio this day. Jag had found a couple of fans that didn’t do much other than blow hot air at them.

  They returned to the computer and maps within a few minutes. Mariah had been jotting down all the reports she’d found in chronological order and passing them to the guys, who would then shade in the map of the country. They’d tuned Jag’s grandfather’s radio to a news station while the television remained muted.

  Going by Aari’s hunch, they were working on the assumption that there had to be an epicenter to the crop destruction for each region. With that in mind, the friends worked fervently to search, identify and chart every farm area that had been destroyed. No set pattern had emerged as of yet but they carried on, resolute.

  Kody and Jag stood back to study the affected areas and noticed that six distinct zones had begun to appear. These were massive and stretched from Texas all the way to North Dakota, west into Montana, and reaching as far as Washington State. Some of the crop destruction spilled over the border into Canada from the northernmost zones. There was also a distinctly affected area in central California.

  This is pretty extensive, Kody thought. They’re hitting our key crop-growing regions.

  “We need more data, ’Riah,” Jag said, sticking his pencil behind his ear.

  “Got a new batch, hold on.” Mariah quickly scrawled on a sticky note and passed it to Kody. “Here.”

  Kody took the note and stuck it on the table between him and Jag. “Thanks.”

  Together, they shaded the new locations onto the map but a clearer pattern remained elusive. “Still nothing,” Kody sighed once they’d finished.

  “Yeah, but look at this.” Jag ran his fingers over the chart. “The rate of destruction at each of the six zones we’ve ID’d seems to be the same over time. It’s not like one zone gets hit one day then another zone gets hit the next, or that it spreads faster in one zone than another. Each day, about equal amounts are getting destroyed all over the country.”

  “That’s something the authorities really should have noticed,” Mariah muttered, scrolling through a website.

  “Maybe they have, but they’re looking at the wrong place for the cause,” Jag reminded her. “We’re the only ones who know that.”

  They worked for another hour, shuffling between online reports and what they gathered from the radio and TV. Kody pressed his forehead against the map and stared at the state of Kansas where he was shading. His eyes began to hurt after a few seconds due to the close proximity, forcing him to sit up again. That was when he noticed something. He tapped Jag’s arm repeatedly. “Hey, hey, take a look. You see it?”

  Mariah shuffled away from the computer and scanned the map with Jag. “Yeah,” she said. “It’s like a rough circle with wedges here and there that haven’t been destroyed.”

  “Yet,” Jag added.

  “Exactly,” Kody enthused. “It’s like a pizza with a few slices missing.”

  Mariah and Jag quirked their eyebrows at him before Jag jabbed the map with his pencil. “Nice job, Kody. See if you can find what’s at the center of this.”

  Kody picked up a ruler. He bent over the map for a minute, reviewing the roughly hundred-fifty-mile radius of Kansas farmland where crops had been destroyed. He made several lines ext
ending from the tips of the “pizza slices”, then stabbed his finger at a spot. “Ransom.”

  “A town called Ransom?” Jag asked.

  “Yep. Wonder who named it. And why.”

  “How far is it from here?”

  Kody glared at him. “Ugh, math.”

  The click-clacking of the old keyboard interrupted the inevitable banter as Mariah typed. “Got it,” she said. “It’s about a three-hour drive from here, but if we drive fast . . . ”

  Jag slapped his knee. “Wonderful. What’s the weather like tonight?”

  The keyboard click-clacked again. Mariah smiled. “It’s actually gonna be pretty cool tonight.”

  Kody jumped up and pranced around, arms flailing, startling Lady awake. “I can’t wait!” he whooped. “I’ve been sweating like a turkey that knows it’s Thanksgiving!”

  Jag grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him back down beside him. “Great, good to know.”

  Lady got to her paws. She trotted to Kody and rested her head on his knee, yawning. He beamed down at her and patted her between her shoulders.

  Jag stood up and arched his back. “Alright, you two. Dress warm.” He slowly broke into a victorious smile. “We leave for Ransom tonight.”

  47

  It was eight o’clock that night when the call came. Aari, Tegan and Marshall were sitting on a park bench drinking slushies, watching the Californians go about with a spring in their steps, as if nothing in the world was wrong. Aari had to admit that he envied their obliviousness.